New Visuals Highlight How Sea Level Rise May Affect the US

As the earth is warming, that is allowing for record low sea ice due to the warmer air and sea surface temperatures. This continuous effect of a decrease in the polar ice caps is increasing the sea levels worldwide.

This new tool, EarthTime, visualizes what the land may look like due to an increase in the global air temperature by 4 degrees Celsius — and these futuristic visuals are not easy to watch.

Below, we have loops of the change in sea level as the global temperature increase by 4 degrees Celsius:

New York City:

Gulf Coast:

Mid-Atlantic:

According to Climate Central, New York City ranked first, with over 245,000 people at risk, followed by Miami and then Pembroke Pines, also in South Florida, are the three cities that are most vulnerable to coastal flooding today due to the rising seas. These projections are based on FEMA’s 100-year coastal floodplains and by factoring in the total population within the FEMA 100-year floodplain, the total population within the FEMA 100-year floodplain as augmented by sea level rise projections for the year 2050, and the total high social vulnerability population within the same areas as group #2.

Now looking ahead to the year of 2050, these are the top ten cities most vulnerable to coastal flooding due to the rising seas:

New York City

Hialeah, Florida

Miami

Fort Lauderdale

Pembroke Pines, Florida

Coral Springs, Florida

Miramar, Florida

Saint Petersburg, Florida

Davie, Florida

Miami Beach

Notice how all but one of these cities listed are located in Florida. Based on this information as well as the imagery above, much of the United States coastline is at risk for rising seas and coastal flooding, but the greatest risk is in Florida, the Sunshine State.

Jackson is Head of Content at WeatherOptics and produces several forecasts and manages all social media platforms. Previously, Jackson forecasted local weather for southwestern Connecticut, founding his website, Jackson's Weather, in the March of 2015. He is currently studying Meteorology and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Miami.